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Some Detroiters at the gala: (standing) Rabbi Mendel Stein, Rabbi Bentzion
Stein, Dr. Jack Schwarcz, Alan Zekelman, Dr. Bruce Newman, former Detroiter
Rabbi Mordechal Avtzon, Dr. Jeff Goldenberg and Herschel Wrotslaysky; (sit-
ting) Eli Saulson, Steven Weisberg, Scott Kaufman and Rabbi Paul Yedwab.

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Jewish Enthusiasm

$55 I PACK

Chabad annual gala gathers
emissaries from across the world.

New York City

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28

December 11 • 2014

JN

group of 30 Chabad emissaries
and another 20 friends and sup-
porters traveled from Detroit to
New York City last month to take part in
the Kinus Hashluchim, the International
Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch
Emissaries.
The emissaries joined their peers from
around the globe at the annual conference,
which is a chance for them to share ideas
and knowledge as well as recharge their
batteries for the year ahead.
Events ran Wednesday through Monday,
with a Gala Banquet Sunday night that
drew a crowd of 5,200, including some
4,200 emissaries from near and far.
In fact, the massive group took a selfie
using an extension rod that just might be
considered a world-champion selfie for the
most amount of people in one such photo-
graph.
As for the Detroit contingent, commu-
nity leaders flew in Sunday to take part in
the once-a-year banquet with their local
Chabad rabbis.
"It made it very meaningful because
the truth of the matter is that the shluchim
[emissaries] are only half of the success
story," said Rabbi Mendel Stein, develop-
ment director at the Oak Park-based
Lubavitch Yeshiva-International School for
Chabad Leadership. "The friends and sup-
porters that encourage and support all of
this work are equally important:'
For Stein, who works at a school focused
on educating young emissaries-in-training,
the event also serves as a sort of reunion.
"Going to the conference and meeting
hundreds of alumni who are emissaries
really brings to the forefront the mission
of why I do what I do every single day," he
explains.
The emissaries' work continues 20 years
after the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe,

Chabad rabbis gather to say prayers
at Rebbe Schneerson's gravesite.

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who
sent the first emissary to Morocco in 1950.
Some 90 young Jewish couples have gone
out on shlichus since the start of 2014 alone,
with the goal of sharing Yiddishkeit with
Jews wherever they are.
"It was truly an unbelievable experience
to see the sacrifices so many young couples
make to help out other Jews that they don't
know:' said Alan Zekelman of Bloomfield
Hills. "I was also proud to meet dozens of
alumni from the Lubavitch Cheder and
Yeshiva right here in Detroit who are now
serving communities worldwide.
"In certain ways, [the event as a whole]
gave me confidence that although we are
challenged with assimilation on one hand,
there's a whole other aspect of our Jewish
community that is alive and well, with
enthusiasm; and you couldn't help but feel
that this is a group of people that's going to
continue our traditions in perpetuity:'
Steven Weisberg of West Bloomfield
was invited to the gala dinner as one of
Zekelman's guests. He said he was wowed
by the sight of the 5,200 men gathered with
the same goal in mind.
"They have such enthusiasm for what
they're doing, what it means to be Jewish:'
he said. "They have a calling to bring
Judaism to Jews all over the world. It's
inspiring:

❑

